Revisions in Batavia city charter would noticeably affect the Council
BATAVIA — If revisions in the city’s more than 50-year-old charter are approved, the most noticeable change could be shorter, less quarrelsome City Council meetings.
After months of study, a nine-member Charter Review Commission has recommended changes that will go to the voters in November. Two earlier hurdles include a review at 5:30 p. m. today by City Attorney George S. Van Nest and a public hearing, probably next month.
The most notable change would be to allow the Council to establish committees to screen agenda items before regular meetings.
The Genesee County Legislature had for decades used three four-member committees — Ways and Means, Public Service and Human Services — to discuss and debate issues that will later come before the full nine-member Legislature. All legislators serve on one of the committees, and two are on two committees.
As a result, a legislative session with 25 resolutions poses an occasional question but little or no discussion and can be completed in a half-hour. Nearly all votes are unanimous. A City Council session with a five-item agenda can, with debate, can consume an hour. No votes are not unusual.
If approved, the committee structure would require Council members who are paid to attend two more meetings each month. At present, the full Council meets twice each month.
The review panel is headed by John E. Roach, an unsuccessful candidate for a Council seat, and includes Bruce R. Tehan, a former Council president.
Its other recommendations call for periodical reviews of the census population count in the city’s six wards, altering the charter provision on public safety so that police and fire departments would not be required but police and fire protection would be maintained, and eliminating the job of city engineer, a post that has been vacant for the past year.
The November ballot may share space with a controversial proposal to merge the city and the Town of Batavia, a 55- square-mile tract in the center of the county with a combined population of more than 22,000.
The charter goes to city voters. The merger plan must be approved by voters in both municipalities. Less than a majority vote in either the town or the city will doom consolidation.
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